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Monthly Archives: September 2014

Our last blog took on the question: Is the Bible to be viewed as a book that is inspired by God but with possible errors? Or is it inerrant?

The answer was: The Bible itself claims to be inspired, but lays no claim to inerrancy.

Part 1 of our blog was aimed to refute the case for inerrancy on the basis of inductive reasoning – arguing from the available biblical evidence to reach an empirically supportable conclusion.

With Part 2 we take on two additional questions:

Is the case for inerrancy any stronger if one argues from the logic of deductive rather than inductive reasoning?

And we address a more fundamental question: Why Does God Prefer Inspiration over Inerrancy?

Let’s take on these questions – one at a time.

The Deductive Approach

In our last blog, we took an inductive approach – arguing from the evidence of scripture that the Bible is to be understood as inspired but not necessarily inerrant.

In this blog, we take pursue the question from the alternative deductive line of reasoning that has employed by many inerrantists. Independent of the evidence of scripture, the logic of this approach is proposed something like this: a) the Bible is the Word of God; and b) God can not lie. Therefore the conclusion: c) Scripture must be wholly true.

Let’s take on these assertions – in the order presented:

The Bible is the Word of God. While seemingly innocent on its face, this assertion goes beyond what the Bible itself asserts. The Bible may be evidence of the Word of God. However, this document as received is not necessarily the one and only authoritative source of God’s word. And in some places, the Bible clearly reads as the recording of human opinions, with no clear divine authentication.
Are there other sources of the Word of God? Yes, the answer is readily apparent from even a casual reading of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures (Old and New Testaments). We know that God revealed himself and talked directly with Adam and Eve. With Moses, Abraham, countless prophets, Jesus and the apostles of the New Testament.
Is every word that God ever uttered expressed in the recorded scriptural narrative? Of course not. There are accounts, what the apostle Paul describes as a “a secret and hidden wisdom of God” made available in some cases collectively, in others individually. And writing to the churches of Galatia, Paul further declares that “the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” This is direct personal revelation, some of which makes its way into preserved written documentation, some of which does not.Bottom line: The Bible is evidence of the Word of God – but not necessarily the sole evidence.

God can not lie. This is trickier ground. Like beauty, truth is often in the eye of the beholder.
The God-head may not lie, but may omit crucial details that at some point become pivotal to understanding the whole truth. Case in point: Jesus is recorded multiple times as requesting that those he heals not tell everyone, but rather “ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” The Son of God time and again wanted to wait to divulge his true mission and divine power until the time had come; avoid or dance around the issue till then.
And is it lying to say one thing and then do another? As Yahweh so often did when confronted by the Patriarchs of the Hebrew scriptures. For example, the Lord threatens to wipe out (or “consume”) the Israelites of the Exodus due to their creation of a golden calf to worship. Moses argues for leniency. And so the author of this remarkable saga explains that “ theLordchanged his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.”
Does God lie? Hard to know. But we do know that he feels free to omit details for a later, better time and to change his mind when challenged. Are these forms of lying? What would you say when this happens in your own life? You decide.

The conclusion offered through this deductive line of reasoning is that if the Bible is the Word of God and if God cannot lie, then scripture must be wholly true. The problem is that if either (or both) of the premises are faulty, then so is the conclusion.

The Bible is a major part but not the sole evidence of the Word of God. And if God does not lie, he will nonetheless evade the truth or reverse course on oral commitments when convenient. Consequently, the case that the scripture must be wholly true 100% of the time falls apart.

Scripture reveals but can also evade truth – at least temporarily. Scripture may also obscure truth – as with the parables of Jesus. And scripture can change its mind – suggesting one thing and doing another. Sometimes challenging us – as readers – to reach our own conclusions. Whether due to the imperfect recollections of humans or the preversely human character of the divine (after all, we are made in his image), scripture gets us part of the way but not necessarily the whole way there. For the rest, we rely on our wits or, better, on the day-to-day walk and talk with our creator.

So, Why Does God Prefer Inspiration Over Inerrancy?

Getting this question right is pivotal to our understanding of the divine and our place in this universe. On the 6th day of creation, the God-head gathered and said: “Let us make humankindin our image, according to our likeness.” And so, at the end of this fateful day, God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was not just good, but “it was very good.”

In this divine image, we humans were created with:

The independent spirit or free will of God.

An experiential (and experimental) nature.

God’s capacity for love and anger.

A lust for life – and companionship.

The opportunity to choose one path, then change course and choose another.

A God-given ability to forgive and, in some cases, forget.

Like the iconic watchmaker, God could have wound up our clock, then let the parts play themselves out in mechanical, predetermined fashion. Yet he took a more experimental role – intervening at times in human affairs, staying away at others, and at yet other times letting nature (or human willfulness) take its course.

As the ultimate (perhaps non-scientific) experiment, we find a God who at times deals in the realm of certainty, at other times in the realms of probability, and yet at others with random chance. As with any stochastic process, there is a wide margin of error.

For God and for his creation, this world is error-prone. He did not dictate every move, nor write every word that came into the heads of the writers of scripture. As Paul says to Timothy, the scripture is “inspired.” Paul never says that scripture is inerrant.

Inspired like Mark Twain’s saga of Huckleberry Finn. Or Dante’s Inferno. Or the multiple dramas and comedies of a William Shakespeare.

This scripture is inspired, God-breathed. It’s what Jesus describes to the Jewish leader Nicodemus in describing the role of the Holy Spirit, when he says: “The windblows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Like the Spirit, the scripture is often ambivalent, multi-directional. Prone to misinterpretation, but with opportunity for self-correction over time. After all, more than half of the time elapsed since Jesus’ sojourn on earth was accompanied by a corrupted Church that was overly reliant on “good works” (often purchased), until redeemed by Martin Luther just 500 years ago.

God was patient, allowing time to take its course and re-center on the question of: what new lessons should we draw from scripture – relevant to our experience today?

But even as a Martin Luther steered us back to scripture on the question of faith and good works, he may well have missed the boat when it came to questions such as church authority and racial prejudice. And so we come back to Scripture, not without error, but to inspire the next generation.

As always, God remains incredibly patient but unable to resist dabbling now and then – whether with a gentle wind or heavy storm – to encourage rediscovery of those spiritual gems we missed before.